Highest score in the SAT puts education in spotlight
By Guo Qiang (chinadaily.com.cn)Updated: 2006-11-15 17:27
The question that students can conquer the SAT and the International
Chemistry Olympiad or the International Mathematics Olympiad, but why are there
no Chinese Nobel Laureates is battling China's educational officials.
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Xu Ningxi, scored 2330 out of a possible 2400 on the American equivalent of China's gaokao, the Hubei-based Chutian Metropolis News reported on November 13.
Xu has applied to prestigious Harvard and Yale universities, according to the paper.
Each year, millions of people around the world apply to study at American colleges or universities. The most widely used college admissions test is the SAT. The SAT covers math, critical reading, and writing. Each section has a possible score of 800..
Xu's achievement is testament to Chinese students' examination abilities.
"Math is less difficult with most of questions coming from my first year in senior high school. And there is a fixed style to writing," said Xu.
China's education system is under fire for students' successes in taking the SAT test because students learn by rote memorization instead of strengthening their other abilities.
A number of Chinese students are having a hard time with the pressure of the gaokao, and have applied to universities in Hong Kong and overseas.
Considering the tremendous difference between China and the US, an increasing number of students applying to Peking and Tsinghua universities have joined the trend of applying to US schools by taking the SAT, the Beijing News reported.
In the future, American universities will be the greatest competition for Chinese universities, which is likely to prompt a change in China's education system, the Beijing News said.
Currently Chinese students who want to apply to US universities have to take the test in Hong Kong.
It is not the first time for Chinese students to stun the world with exceptionally high SAT scores.
Last year, a Chinese girl who studied at a senior high school in California returned to China and attended a training course at the New Oriental School, China's best-known training school in an effort to pass the SAT.
Media reports were critical of the girl, saying it is ridiculous for a girl who studied in the US to have to undergo training in China to pass the test.
She scored perfectly on the SAT, and was admitted to two of the most prestigious universities in the US, Harvard, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
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